Cohoes special election set for Aug. 27

Common council candidates worry about turnout in re-do of Fifth Ward race

Candidates for Cohoes Common Council, 5th Ward, Kathy Donovan, left, and Adam Biggs, right, look over absentee ballots at the Albany County Board of Elections on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. Also pictured are, Gil Ethier, second from left, Chairman of the Cohoes Democratic Party and Deputy Majority Leader for the Albany County Legislature, and Tom Keefe, second from right. After the counting of absentee ballots, Donovan and Biggs are tied. (Paul Buckowski/Times Union) less

Candidates for Cohoes Common Council, 5th Ward, Kathy Donovan, left, and Adam Biggs, right, look over absentee ballots at the Albany County Board of Elections on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. Also ... more

Candidates for Cohoes Common Council, 5th Ward, Kathy Donovan, left, and Adam Biggs, right, look over absentee ballots at the Albany County Board of Elections on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. Also pictured are, Gil Ethier, second from left, Chairman of the Cohoes Democratic Party and Deputy Majority Leader for the Albany County Legislature, and Tom Keefe, second from right. After the counting of absentee ballots, Donovan and Biggs are tied. (Paul Buckowski/Times Union) less

Candidates for Cohoes Common Council, 5th Ward, Kathy Donovan, left, and Adam Biggs, right, look over absentee ballots at the Albany County Board of Elections on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. Also ... more

Candidates Adam Biggs and Kathleen Donovan will face off again on Aug. 27, an election that became necessary when a poll worker at the June 25 primary allowed 19 non-Democrats to vote — and the election ended in a tie after absentee ballots were counted last week.

The candidates and Albany County Board of Elections commissioners and deputy commissioners met Monday morning to agree to the terms of the new election. One of the terms includes the board of elections having its own employees run the election, not poll workers.

Donovan said it was the board of elections' idea to not involve traditional poll workers.

Republican Elections Commissioner Rachel Bledi said the decision to use board employees was more driven by primarily by cost savings rather than as a direct response to what happened on Primary Day.

"We would use (poll workers) again, but it just seems irrational to use additional funds," Bledi said.

Democratic Elections Commissioner Matthew Clyne and Bledi have said they do not believe there was intentional elections tampering committed during the primary. They have said the poll worker, who has not been publicly named, mistakenly thought that New York has open primaries. Some states allow open primaries which allow registered voters can cast ballots in any primary. The invalid votes were discovered because the poll worker had the voters sign their names in the poll book when they could not be found in the primary's voter roll.

Bledi said it is rare for a poll worker to make such an error. Poll workers are told to contact the board of elections office if they have any questions during their shifts. "For the most part inspectors do a pretty good job," she said.

The Fifth Ward race happened at the same time as the contentious Democratic primary for Cohoes mayor, in which incumbent Shawn Morse — facing a federal indictment that alleges he misused campaign funds — was challenged by three other candidates. Retired State Police Maj. Bill Keeler defeated Morse 1,045 to 938 after absentee ballots were counted.

Biggs and Donovan are vying for the Common Council seat held by Steve Napier, who did not seek re-election and instead campaigned for mayor. He came in third place with 652 votes. Former city Treasurer Peter Frangie receiving 334 votes.

After ballots were counted on primary day, Donovan, herself a retired deputy elections commissioner from Albany County, held a six-vote lead over Biggs, a teacher at Bishop Gibbons High School. But after the absentee count on July 2, Biggs and Donovan were tied at 286 votes. Biggs had gotten one other absentee vote, but Donovan objected because the voter had marked the "write-in" bubble as well. That ballot was set aside.

Elections officials said one of the candidates would have had to win by at least 20 votes — the margin of the invalid votes cast on Primary Night plus one — in order to avoid holding a special election.

Both candidates say they will spend the summer campaigning, but worry about low turnout during the last week of summer. The board of elections originally picked the second Tuesday in August, but both candidates had planned vacations. There are about 1,200 registered Democrats in the Fifth Ward.

Related Stories

Bledi said the board of elections will likely send out two notifications to Democrats to alert them to the new election date. It's unclear yet if the original polling site, Holy Trinity's parish hall, will be available to hold the election.

The winner of the Aug. 27 special election will appear on the Democratic line in the general election and face Republican and Independence candidate Christopher Davis. Biggs will also appear on the Working Families line.